I handed out 1000 booklets this evening to a receptive and friendly
crowd. This is a better venue to leaflet than the St. Charles Family
Arena. I heard from one vegan and one vegetarian.

Comment: Great work, Rick! We can’t rely on a media that is beholden
to corporate America to expose what happens to animals on factory farms
or to accurately portray our ministry as one of peace and compassion. By
taking our message directly to our brothers and sisters in Christ, the
CVA is a powerful and effective ministry.

The previous essays have argued that secular values invariably inform
the way we receive and interpret the Bible. This week I aim to show that
the Bible offers conflicting views about humanity’s relationship with
animals. Next week, I will assert that animal rights is a secular basis
for defending animals against abuse and injustice that also helps us
understand and respond to Biblical mandates about the ethical treatment
of animals.

There are many videos and books that show unequivocally that nonhuman
beings are abused on a massive scale on farms, in laboratories, in the
fur industry, and elsewhere. Many justify humanity’s harmful
exploitation of nonhumans on the grounds that humans are superior
creations. However, humans are not equal in terms of intellect,
strength, moral behavior, manifestation of God-like attributes (as a
consequent of being created “in the image of God”), or other criteria.
Superiority, per se, is not grounds for tyrannical, abusive treatment of
vulnerable individuals. Further, I think the claim of human superiority
is dubious on both scientific and religious grounds.

Scientifically, evolutionary theory points to humans as being just
one branch on a vast tree of animals, each evolved to fill different
niches. Humanity’s impressive intelligence has been a very successful
adaptation in the short term, but the long term survival of humanity
remains very much in doubt as humanity’s technologies have polluted the
environment, depleted essential resources, and developed weapons of mass
destruction. It may turn out that many creatures with less impressive
cognitive skills but with other adaptations will outlast humans, a
possibility that challenge the notion of human superiority.

Among those who reject evolutionary theory and look to the Bible to
ascertain humanity’s relationship to the rest of Creation, the Bible
gives special place to humans as created “in the image of God.” However,
the Bible also condemns cruelty to animals and describes God’s care and
concern for animals. For example, the Bible describes God declaring all
of Creation “very good,” and God prescribing vegan diets for all
creatures in the Garden of Eden. (See also, for example, Psalm 145:9,
Proverbs 12:10, and Isaiah 11:6-9.) Indeed, the writer of Ecclesiastes
articulated continuity between humans and nonhuman beings: “For the fate
of the sons of men and the fate of the beasts is the same; as one dies,
so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no
advantage over the beasts; for all is vanity. All go to one place; all
are from the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knows whether the
spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down to the
earth? (3:19-21)

The Bible does not give humanity free reign to treat animals in any
way that humans please, regardless of the pain and suffering that the
animals experience. However, there is a conflict between the Bible’s
description of God giving Adam “dominion” over creation and the Bible’s
description of God’s concern for all Creation. Next week, I will discuss
how animal rights can help resolve this conflict.